


Ready?

by AndyAO3



Series: somewhere (there's a place for us) [11]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Feels, Gabriel goes shopping for the people he cares about, Humor, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Monster Reaper | Gabriel Reyes, Old Men Being Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 05:49:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9058306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndyAO3/pseuds/AndyAO3
Summary: It's been thirty years and neither of them ever worked up the courage to pop the question.





	1. there's something in the heart of gabriel reyes

**Author's Note:**

> MERRY CHRISTMAS/HAPPY NEW YEAR/HAPPY HOLIDAYS this is only sort of a christmas fic I feel like it can be read any time of year though, wanted it to be like... really fluffy, because these idiots deserve a bit of fluff in their lives
> 
> if Blizzard ever declares them canon I'll probably cry a lot, and I love that I can make that statement and have it be a real possibility, thank you Blizzard, I love you
> 
> I've had not a lot of sleep don't mind me

Breathe, he reminded himself. In, out. Hold it together. Keep a lid on the madness. It was alright if the pain showed, so long as the inhumanity didn't; Gabriel was fine with his hands shaking a little if it meant being able to look normal for this. Looking normal was important for what he wanted to do. He wasn't Reaper, not then. He was just a man in his late 50's, out looking for gifts.

"All these years and you still can't figure out how to layer up for the cold," Jack had teased him on the way out, squinting through a woefully inadequate pair of glasses as he sifted through a closet full of his old Overwatch-era civvies left behind at the Watchpoint. Less than what he'd had at Zurich, still just enough to toss a long woolen overcoat at Gabriel. "There's gloves in the pockets. Don't stay out too long."

And as it turned out, the coat ended up being a good idea. The bone-deep aching and burning in his muscles weren't helped by the cold, and the longer he stayed out, the worse it'd get. Gabriel figured he had a few hours before he broke, reverting to a state somewhere between "zombie" and "amorphous blob". But a few hours was more than enough. He'd made sure to wait out the Christmas rush, coming in a couple of days late just to lessen the amount of stress such a trip would put on him. People would just have to suck it up and deal with getting New Years' gifts from him instead.

There was a tinkling sound above his head as the bells on the door heralded the newest customer; both the college-age girl and the omnic behind the counter looked up as he came in, straightening themselves out and pulling out the Customer Service Body Language the moment he set foot in the door. He offered a fleeting smile, certain that it had to look strained.

"Ladies," he greeted. Both ducked their heads respectfully. Probably just shocked to see anyone coming in at such a weird off-hour two days _after_ Christmas.

(He and Jack had spent Christmas together instead, watching old TV shows and marathoning bad movies after having made off with an entire pie and a can of whipped cream from the Watchpoint mess hall. Best Christmas that Gabriel'd had in years.)

Pulling down his hood, Gabriel walked up to the counter, looking through the glass cases at the dazzling array of merchandise. Sombra had suggested stealing, but Gabriel wanted to do things right. Besides, she'd probably be watching his purchases anyway, the little shit that she was. She'd know that at least one of the gifts was for her the moment she saw it come up on his credit chit.

"Would you like some help finding something, sir?" the girl behind the counter asked, smiling politely. Her dark hair was tied back into a braid, and her English was faintly accented; received pronunciation, very proper.

Gabriel shrugged, still eyeing the display cases. "I have a general idea of what I want. There's three people I'm shopping for."

"Oh?" The omnic tilted her head; her tone was pleasant, conversational. "Well, if there's anything we don't seem to have, we can order it for you from a catalogue."

He nodded slowly. Looking over the selection, he pointed to the earrings on display. "Crystal or diamond?"

"Diamond, sir," the girl said. "Crystal's on the other side."

"Ahh." Gabriel shifted his focus accordingly. Sombra wouldn't approve of the lengths people went to when it came to mining diamonds. "Those little silver studs-- can I see them?"

The omnic chirped a quick _yes, sir_ and went to open the display case and pull out the earrings in question. They were platinum, not silver, but without diamonds, the price was almost reasonable. She'd probably still scold him, but it would be less because he'd gotten her an expensive thing and more because he'd gotten her anything at all.

Acceptable.

"I'll take this," he said, setting the little box down on the glass countertop and tapping it. "Got any watches with leather bands in larger sizes?"

Both the omnic and the girl gave him equally incredulous looks. "Not-- not really, sir," the girl said.

"Catalogue?" Gabriel suggested. The omnic nodded quickly and ducked into the back, her co-worker having to sidestep quickly to avoid getting shoved or stepped on.

Meanwhile, the girl gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry," she said. "It's a specialty thing. Watches are really rare these days, and the leather bands are even rarer."

"The guy I'd be getting it for wears cowboy boots unironically," Gabriel told her, and she stifled a giggle.

"She's used to getting yelled at when we don't have things," the omnic chimed in on the way back, turning her head just enough to throw an admonishing look towards her co-worker; the girl pouted and shoved at her, and she gently shoved back with one hand as she set a number of thick, ragged catalogues out with a series of soft _thump_ s. "Here. We'd have digital ones but the owner likes being 'authentic'."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow as he opened up one of the heavy tomes and began sifting through it. Page after page of ornate watches, some not functional at all and existing purely for the sake of aesthetic, some digital, some downright archaic. Real leather cost a hell of a lot more than fake leather did, and the mechanisms and methods of staying wound varied as much as the styles did.

After a few minutes of hunting, he found the right one; scratchproof, waterproof, pearl face, gold hands, gold plated clasp, gold plated casing, numbers instead of roman numerals, and mechanical. The band was real leather in a reddish tone, with black stitching for the accents.

Not something they had in stock, but that was fine. "Can I send him in to pick it up when it arrives, or do I have to come get it myself?"

"As long as he has the receipt, he can pick it up himself," the omnic assured him.

Gabriel breathed a sigh of relief, letting himself relax. Thank God; he didn't think he could do these outings all that often. His concentration was already fraying, and it'd only been an hour. Pain was pricking at the edges of his consciousness, eating away at him. He was falling apart faster than he'd thought he would. "Then put it on a seperate receipt so I can hand it to him when I see him. Lets him get the sizing right that way."

The girl spoke up. "And the third gift, sir?" Her voice had gone soft, like she was worried. Like she could see his exhaustion, even if she couldn't begin to know the cause.

He was sure she wouldn't be so concerned if she knew who or what the man behind the forged ID and credit chit was. "A ring," he said, leaning heavily against the glass display case.

Intrigued, the girl leaned forward with him, her chin resting on her hands. "What kind of ring?" she asked.

"Platinum. Maybe with some gold. His hair-- used to be blond, started going silver a few years back." Gabriel smiled to himself. "But he's a soldier, so nothing too flashy or impractical. He'd hate it if it stuck out too much or got in the way."

The girl nodded sagely. "Something understated."

"Yeah. Maybe some stones, something that isn't gaudy. Something in blue."

"Sapphires?" she suggested; her co-worker hurried off to one of the display cases, out of Gabriel's line of sight.

"Think softer. More like blue topaz or aquamarine." He'd seen a few examples online, but nothing compared to looking at something in person. A bit like fabric-shopping, which was yet another thing Sombra had teased him for when she'd found out about it.

The girl behind the counter hummed as her co-worker returned with a selection of rings, gleaming even when not accented by the display case's strategic lighting. Gabriel straightened as he regarded them, picking them up to look them over one by one. Prices, gold content, sizes, gem quality, practicality. Picky? Sure, but not without reason.

Eventually, he settled on a thick platinum band with a gold inlay, bezel-set with a round, subtly faceted blue topaz. There was a faint tremble in his fingers as he held it, and he hoped to whatever deities might exist that he wasn't exhaling puffs of black smoke because _fuck_ if he wasn't having trouble keeping his composure.

He was really going to do this.

"Think he'll like it?" he asked, not looking up. His focus was on the ring, the metal cool against his burning skin. It'd look good on Jack's hand, bringing out all the cool undertones and emphasizing the squareish shapes and angles.

While none of this was known to the girl behind the counter, she smiled anyway. "I think he'll love it," she said. And somehow, even if she had no idea what Jack was like, just hearing someone else agree with his choice made him feel a bit better.

 


	2. the story ends on the usual landscape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...and neither of them knows how to propose like a normal person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go.

McCree was skeptical when he got the receipt, but when he got back to base his eyes were wet and he was grinning from ear to ear, the watch snug around his good wrist. The hug that came after that was unexpected, but Gabriel had a hard time convincing himself that he should push the kid away. And Sombra, well, she confronted Gabriel the moment he got back to base and insisted that he didn't have to get her anything, just like he'd thought she would. Not that it stopped her from taking the gift, huffing, and immediately taking the little studs out of their box to put them in her ears.

She hugged him too, but not before she gave him a gift of her own: a full cosmetic application kit, a palette of eyeshadow, liquid eyeliner, and a bottle of nail polish, all neatly tucked inside a gaudy gift bag that was shedding copious amounts of cheap glitter everywhere. None of the contents were properly wrapped, but all of them were tied up with intricately knotted purple silk bows, with a final bow tied to the handle of the bag for good measure.

"You went all-out," he remarked, going through the bag's contents.

Sombra shrugged it off. "Not really. You're getting your own colors for everything else, by the way. I'm not going to try to get your skintone right under drugstore lighting."

"It's been a while since I've had a reason to wear anything like this."

"But you've got a reason to wear it now, right?" She elbowed him. It didn't do much, considering he was halfway into smoke monster mode. Just sort of made the jacket he was wearing sink into the amorphous mass that was his side. "Could order you up some contacts, too. The eyes are always the first part to go kinda weird on you."

"Sombra..."

"Hey, I'm only trying to help, alright? I saw that security footage at the jeweler's. You looked like you were about to melt." She poked him; it sank in again, this time caving in a part of his sleeve, but she seemed unfazed by the weirdness of it. "Besides, I know _I_ always feel more human after I've got my make-up on."

Well, she wasn't wrong, exactly. When he was younger and he'd still bothered with that kind of thing, he'd kind of loved making himself look good for anything remotely resembling a formal event. In the final days of the old Overwatch, he hadn't bothered much, but early on...

The first time he and Jack had gone to a formal dinner with the rest of the founders, getting congratulated by all the dignitaries and important people of the world who could find the time to attend. Jack catching a glimpse of him in his tailored dark grey suit with the wine red shirt and black tie, in his careful eyeliner and subtle contouring, and nearly fumbling a glass of champagne at the sight. Ana had teased them both afterward, laughing at Jack's indignant squawking about _his_ suit being a rental.

After that, sometimes - mostly during the good years - Gabriel would be the one to clean up Jack's face for interviews, or doll them both up for press events or parties if they happened to be attending together. He had such a pretty face. Made for a great canvas for that kind of thing. Probably still would too, even after all this time; maybe Jack would even sit still for it these days.

Gabriel smiled with a few too many teeth visible through the tears in his skin, clutching the bag that much tighter. Honestly, Sombra's guess was probably based off of old candids and interview photos he'd happened to be wearing make-up in, not the wraith's fond memories of it. Either that or she'd figured it was a thing she liked, and thus would be a thing he liked as well.

That didn't make it a bad guess, though. "Thanks, Sombra."

"Mm. Same to you, old man." She patted him on the cheek, and left seeming only marginally annoyed that her pretty little gloved fingertips came away slightly gritty.

\---

New Year's Eve saw another party at the Watchpoint, with everyone who had a hand in the new Overwatch on the guest list. Everyone including Gabriel Reyes, who some still viewed as a traitor. Winston called it an olive branch, but Gabriel had a feeling Jack had bullied the poor bastard into it; if the former Strike Commander was going to be badgered into being social, then he tended to try and manipulate circumstances in such a way that he wouldn't have to be miserable alone.

As parties went, Gabriel had seen worse. There was glitter, confetti, booze, chatter, and he much preferred Correia's DJ-ing tastes to Reinhardt's. Sombra was off flirting with a very uncomfortable Symmetra in a corner, Oxton was introducing her girlfriend to Zhou (apparently this Emily woman was a fan of hers), McCree was passed out at a table while the younger Shimada tried to see how many cups he could stack on the drunk bastard before he shifted and they fell, Fareeha was trying unsuccessfully to hit on an oblivious Ziegler... Honestly, for an Overwatch party, it was pretty tame.

"I'm amazed nothing's caught fire yet," he remarked to Ana, who was sipping primly at a teacup full of spiked punch. The two of them were off to one side of the cleared out mess hall, watching proceedings. An old habit by that point; in the past, they'd always been quickest to diffuse such situations whenever they arose.

Ana just scoffed, shaking her head slightly. "Give it time. The two Australian boys won't be sober for much longer at the rate they're going."

"Mm. Well, the extinguisher's in the usual spot just in case, and the sprinklers should still work."

"Should," Ana echoed. "But do they ever?"

"There's a first time for everything." Gabriel cleared his throat, shifting and jamming his hands into his pockets of his hoodie and fidgeting with the small box he'd tucked away for later. "How long until he gets back with drinks, y'think?"

Ana chuckled. "You're nervous."

"No shit."

"I'd make a comment about your blood pressure, but I'm not even sure you have that anymore."

"Depends on what level of barely-functional zombie I'm operating on." Gabriel ducked his head, exhaling a plume of black smoke. It took him a while to find what he wanted to say. "I'm scared, Ana."

"I know."

"This could fuck up. He used me once, and I let him get away with it until it killed me."

"It killed all three of us, to be fair."

"Think about it long enough and it's pretty obvious that the smart thing to do would be to chuck this damn thing into the ocean, then just straight-up leave and never come back."

"Oh, definitely."

"He's always going to get on my nerves, he's always going to be a petty, manipulative asshole..."

"Mmhm."

"He's insensitive, insecure, needy, selfish, bullheaded, emotionally stunted--"

"--and standing right in front of you," Ana noted, and Gabriel jerked his head up like he'd been struck a physical blow.

There was Jack. A few feet in front of them, looking at Gabriel over the top of those glasses the doc always nagged him to wear with a slight headtilt and a wry smile. A couple of beers in one hand, a bottle opener in the other.

"Love you too, Gabe," he said blandly. "So what is it we're throwing in the ocean? I'm guessing it's something of mine."

Ana set her cup down on a nearby table a bit more loudly than was necessary. "I think that would be my cue to go smother my daughter. Best of luck to you, Gabriel."

"No, wait, Ana--" Nope. She was off, into the wilds of the rest of the party with all the other Overwatch types, wedging herself into a conversation with Reinhardt and Zarya with practiced ease.

Leaving him with Jack, who was still looking at him. Expectant, curious, maybe a little bit amused at Gabriel's clear discomfort. "So," he started to say; Gabriel held a hand up to cut him off before he could continue.

"Not here." Not in front of everyone. For both their sakes.

Jack blinked at him for a second, then shrugged. Confused but rolling with it, setting the drinks down next to Ana's cup along with the bottle opener. "If you say so."

\---

Gibraltar was a fairly open base, with wide hangars and high ceilings. Carved out of the rock, it was about as solid as watchpoints tended to get, but it was also a drafty walk from the mess hall to the ever-warm server rooms.

"Got any plans for the new year?" Jack asked along the way, cutting through the sound of wind and echoes of celebration behind them. He sounded nervous, like the tense silence between them bothered him.

Nothing unusual there. "Dunno, aside from what I've done for the past few years. Following up on conspiracies, dismantling the systems that led Overwatch to fall apart to begin with, finding the people responsible and eating them. You know," Gabriel gestured vaguely, "the usual."

Jack nodded slowly, toying with the ends of his sleeves. Even broad as he was, wearing one of Gabriel's hoodies always made him look a little on the thin side; it probably didn't help that he'd lost weight from all the years he'd spent on the run. "Right," he murmured.

Gabriel shot him a look. "Expecting a different answer, sunshine?"

"No, not... Not really. Just, I dunno." Jack sighed, melancholic. "Hoping for one, I guess."

"Uh-huh."

"Were you being serious?" the old soldier asked suddenly. "Back there. About leaving."

The wraith stopped in his tracks, letting out a slow breath. Jack paused a few steps ahead of him. "I can't just ignore what happened, Jack."

"I know. Wouldn't ask you to." It was fucking heartbreaking sometimes just how much Jack beat himself up over everything. Deserved in a way, but heartbreaking. "If that's what you want, I won't stop you."

"Of course it's not what I fucking _want_." Gabriel huffed a bitter laugh. "Since when has what we want had a place in the grand scheme of things?"

Jack winced. "I-- sorry."

There wasn't any way to respond to that, so Gabriel decided to shift gears. "What about you?" he asked. "What do you want?"

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Jack grumbled, "It's not important."

"C'mon, Jack. If it weren't important then you wouldn't be pouting."

"I... If I say it I'll sound like a selfish prick."

"Good thing you're talking to someone who's used to you being a selfish prick then, huh?"

"Damn it, Gabe--"

"Jackie." Gabriel reached out, let his hand rest on Jack's shoulder. Urged the other soldier to turn around and face him, slowly; Jack kept his gaze stubbornly on the floor as he did so, stiff and tense. "Hey. Talk to me."

Jack bit his lip. "Why am I always the one doing the talking?"

Gabriel frowned. "Jack, I always talk to you."

"No, you talk your way around shit, there's a difference."

"I--"

"I'm serious. For everything you tell me, there's another five things you don't ever bring up. I have to go digging, I have to ask friends, I have to _guess_ whatever the hell it is you might be thinking. And okay, sure, none of what you said to Ana was really anything new to me, but--" Jack's expression was somewhere between a glare and a deep frown, etched with hurt and emotional exhaustion and frustration, "--just, if you don't want to be here, if you're doing it for me like everything else, just _say so_. Because it feels a helluva lot like--"

"Jack. Listen to yourself." Gabriel was quick to close the gap between them, smoothing his hands over Jack's arms. "If I'm here for you in spite of it being a bad idea, wouldn't it stand to reason that being here for you is exactly what I want?"

Jack went quiet for a long time, finally looking up to squint at Gabriel through thick glasses and terrible vision. After a while, he broke out a faint grin. "Heh." He relaxed into Gabriel's grip, pulling his hands from his pockets, shifting to let them tangle up with the wraith's own. "Nice eyeliner."

Gabriel snorted. "Thanks. Sombra got it for me."

"Looks good. I mean, not that I'd know anything, but..." Jack sighed. "Yeah. Okay. Sorry I panicked."

"Here I thought you'd be at it for a few more minutes, at least."

"You never wear that kinda thing when you're not... Well, I'm not sure happy is the right word, but--"

"Stable? Content? Generally feeling safe and not too miserable?"

"Yeah. Never during the first Crisis that I could see, and hardly at all in the buildup to Zurich, so..." Jack closed his eyes, leaned forward until his forehead rested against Gabriel's; Gabriel let him. "I'm still sorry."

"Don't be."

"Can't help it." True enough for someone like Jack. "Meant what I said though. I love you, but getting you to talk about your problems is like pulling teeth."

"Love you too," Gabriel mumbled. It was cold; they hadn't made it as far as the server room, ending up halfway through one of the big hangars. But Jack was warm, always ran a little hot after the SEP, even if Gabriel ran hotter.

And Jack was staring at him, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, gawking openly.

Gabriel frowned. "What?"

"You never--" Jack's voice caught, and he cleared his throat as he quickly shook his head. "Nothing. Nevermind."

Something clicked for Gabriel; he held Jack's hands that much tighter, appalled at himself. "I never told you?"

"No."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Never bothered me that much. I wasn't gonna make you spell it out."

Never bothered him-- Gabriel's jaw set in a firm line as he untangled his hands from Jack's and dug into his pockets, taking a step back to search them.

It was Jack's turn to blink at him. "Gabe--"

"No. I'm fixing this." He pulled out the little box the second he found it, making a frustrated noise as he fumbled with the clasp. Once undone, he pulled the ring out and tossed the box aside in favor of taking Jack's hand and working the platinum band carefully onto his left ring finger.

Jack didn't fight it; he just watched, mouth hanging open slightly. Gabriel couldn't quite meet his eyes.

"John Morrison," Gabriel began, "in thirty years, not a single person has managed to beat your dumb ass in terms of the monopoly you have on my life."

"You're serious," Jack murmured.

"I'm serious." The good, the bad, everything revolved around Jack. Love and hate and longing and hurt, all wrapped around this one man who'd stumbled into his life and made him feel like everything he did was worth something, meant something. He took on the worst that the world had to offer just so Jack would be safe; he'd died in the name of what he and Jack had built together. Even at his lowest, when spite was all that kept him going, it was for the sake of confronting Morrison's ghost one more time.

He could feel himself falling apart at the edges, flaking and shedding. Pinpricks of pain gnawed at him, reminding him quietly of how far he'd already gone-- how far he was willing to go. How Jack had ruined him once, how easily it could happen again. All being an immortal monster meant was that Jack could break him again and again without killing him, the cycle continuing right up to the day Death managed to catch up to them and take Jack away from him.

And Gabriel would let it happen, too, because he loved that dumb bastard so much that he'd brave Hell itself just to see that fucking dorky smile.

Jack let go of a shuddering breath, pulling his hand away and moving to pat down his own pockets with a muffled curse. The movement startled Gabriel from his thoughts, drawing his attention.

"Jack?"

"One question," Jack stammered out quickly, "before I do anything else: did Ana know about this?"

"You're asking if I told her." A nod. "Then yes. Kinda. I hinted. She guessed. She's known for years that I've been considering it."

Jack barked a laugh, shaking his head. "Son of a bitch." He took Gabriel's left hand in one of his own, pulled out something small and metal that glinted in the light with the other. Gabriel could swear he felt his heart leap into his throat, or he would if his actually still worked to any considerable extent.

He understood the moment Jack went to wiggle the ring onto his finger.

"Dragged me out at what ended up being about five minutes to closing at the jeweler's," Jack explained. " 'Don't waste your chance', she said. Do you know how hard it is to pick out a ring? That woman kept me there for an hour and a half."

"It's a little snug," Gabriel noted.

"Like I know your size. I didn't even know mine! Ana ended up having to guess." Jack let go of his hand, giving him a chance to examine the ring; white gold, with a squared bezel-set ruby that shone in the hangar's low lighting. "Is it the new year yet? I was gonna do it when the clock struck twelve in front of everybody, but _someone_ had to go and fuck up the plan."

"Knowing you, you'd talk yourself out of it and put it off till Valentine's or the Chinese new year or something."

"You haven't said 'yes' yet."

"I'll say 'yes' when you actually ask me, Jack."

"Do you want to get married or not?"

"Yes." It surprised Gabriel just how easy it was to say it, but what didn't surprise him was that when he looked up, Jack was practically vibrating with nervous energy. He had to smile at that.

Jack managed to smile too. "Okay. Good." He took a second to breathe, maybe calm himself down somewhat. His breath was visible in the crisp, cool winter air. "Happy, uh," he cleared his throat, "happy new year, Gabe."

Gabriel's response was to pull him in and kiss him senseless.

 


End file.
